Post-Upgrade Differences, Advancements, And Blues

With the updated software, the blogs have seen some changes, some good, a few disappointing. This entry will exist to allow you guys to familiarize yourself with the new layout. The FAQ entry below this has been updated accordingly and will serve as the de facto "how to blog" entry once the board has been back for an extended period of time. I am leaving this open, and request all questions and comments regarding the new layout go HERE and NOT in the Blog Q&A.

So! NEW BLOG STUFF!

New blog entry layout:

The new entry layout is mostly similar. Along with the usual options for entry title and categorization, there is also a palce to add tags to your entry. These tags will appear at the bottom of an entry, while the category you put an entry in will appear at the top of the entry.

How to edit/change basic blog settings:

1. Click on your username in the top right corner of the page. Open the drop down menu.2. Click "manage blogs".3. Click the options button. From here, you can view your blog, post a new entry, manage settings, manage categories, or manage comments.

Manage settings:

This allows you to change the name or description (subtitle) of your blog. It also has options for blog view permissions and a url to your blog page, but those settings are inactive.

Manage categories:

This allows you to make new categories for your blog entries and to see how many/what entries are listed in a category. It also gives an option to delete a category. This will NOT delete entries. Instead, it sets any entries in deleted category to "uncategorized" if this is done.

Manage comments:

This lets you see every comment ever on your blog in one big list. Here, you have options to approve, delete, or unapprove comments by clicking on the checked box. This option will not work if you are a nonpremier member.

Content Blocks

There have been some problems since the upgrades with content blocks. You'll notice you can no longer change their sizes, and there are reports where some members have the wrong content blocks after the upgrades and server change, and unfortunately we cannot fix that. You will have to change your blocks yourself, and if yours have been over-written with someone else's, unless yours appear in the drop-down "Add Block" menu, there is no way to bring yours back.

Other issues we're having with the content blocks involves curious cases of content block disappearances. For some members, whenever they edit an entry/comment, or change content block settings, they will see their content blocks disappear, and the content blocks will not be listed in the aforementioned drop-down box. Because the board thinks the blocks are still there (because they are).

There seems to be some patterns to the behaviour:

Hides Content BlocksMoving block positionHiding a content block (red X), both custom and defaultCreating a new content blockDeleting a custom content blockEditing a custom content blockAdding an entry, both published and draftedPublishing a draft entryDrafting a published entryDeleting an entry, both published or drafted

Brings back blocksAdding a commentDeleting a commentUn-approving a commentApproving a comment

Doesn't bring back blocksEditing a commentReporting a comment

If you experience this problem, you may let us know in this entry. However, we have submitted a bug report with IPB, have not heard back, and have found nothing to remedy the situation, so if you are one of the unlucky members, we are sorry, but there is nothing, as of now, we can do to fix this problem. We hope that if we're patient a fix will present itself.

Update: As of Dec. 4th, 2012, this problem has been fixed. Content blocks should no longer disappear unexpectedly.

Thanks for your patience, your support, and enjoy blogging on BZPower once again! We're excited to have you back!!

You can see the blogs you follow if you click your username in the top right of the screen, and select "content I follow" and then set the filters to blogs. This is the only way to see them listed in one place. You can add blogs to this list by opening the blog, and selecting "follow this blog".

I noticed that I cannot bump my blog entry by drafting it and then republishing the work. Is there another method of bumping the entry or will I have to make a new entry with the copied text? Or is bumping not allowed anymore?

On the right side of the blog when you're editing there is an option that says "publish immediately (change)". When you click that, a clock setting pops up. Set it to whatever time and day it currently is. Boom. Blog bumped.

You can also use this to have entries auto-publish at a certain time, I believe.

The auto-publish is a pretty cool and useful feature. I gotta wonder if the front page news uses a similar system.

EDIT: I tried to auto-publish a past entry by setting the time 3 minutes after the current time. 3 minutes went by and it published, but it didn't get bumped, as in show on the top of the Blogs list. I haven't tried auto-publishing a new entry yet, though.

Thanks for the help, DeeVee. The auto-publish is a pretty cool and useful feature. I gotta wonder if the front page news uses a similar system. EDIT: I tried to auto-publish a past entry by setting the time 3 minutes after the current time. 3 minutes went by and it published, but it didn't get bumped, as in show on the top of the Blogs list. I haven't tried auto-publishing a new entry yet, though.

If you're talking about the "Who is Tobi" entry, it is at the very top of the new blog entries list for me at this exact moment, so it did indeed bump it.

Yes, but I followed your directions by setting the time as the current time. That had worked for me and it showed up on the blog entries list. Later on, though, I wanted to try out the auto-publish feature, so I set up the time 3 minutes after the current time. The "Who is Toby?" entry was published, but when I checked the blog entries list, it did not show up. So I reset it as the current time and it showed up. :/